An Overview of the Participatory Action Research Groups of the Ethnomusicology Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)

Ethnomusicology in Rio de Janeiro, Its Praxis, Methods and Political Engagements

An Overview of the Participatory Action Research Groups of the Ethnomusicology Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)

We submit this proposal as members of the Ethnomusicology Lab of UFRJ (LE-UFRJ), comprising groups that are involved in performance as part of participatory research methodologies. We do not take a position of “neutrality” but aim, through praxis, to produce research models of intervention, reflection, and political action. We are inspired in our work by the Musicultura group, the oldest group at LE-UFRJ, characterized by interventionist and activist work in local sites. Groups such as the Research Group on Ethnomusicology Dona Ivone Lara and the Ethnomusicological Research Group Negô act in events and movements related to Black music production, made for and by Black people, while taking into consideration debates related to intersectionality in a broad sense – in which race, gender, sexuality, and class, territoriality, and accessibility are vectors that shape research. The Cultural Temple group, which develops its work in Baixada Fluminense, a metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, focuses on interreligious dialogue. The musical and political performance of young Black artists and activists from the hip-hop universe are addressed by the research of Juliana Catinin, Nyl MC, and DJ Pirigo.

We break with academic canons that transgress the rights of oppressed people and groups, by taking a decolonial and counter-colonial path and contesting the privilege of academic writing. This involves valuing, making visible, and giving weight to counter-hegemonic political and epistemological experiences of our African, Afro-Brazilian, and Amerindian ancestors. Without any illusion of “purity,” we share perspectives from a diverse, complex, urban diaspora. These are voices that challenge their daily lived realities and reflect deeply on issues such as structural racism, which is visible in public spaces through religion, corporeality, politics, and music.

This ICTM Dialogues session is mostly comprised of young Black people with diverse backgrounds, in academia and beyond, living in the peripheries. We understand and honour the knowledge of those who came before us, and those who work outside of current paradigms. To prepare this ICTM Dialogues session, we thought together about music and what it offers as a tool for transforming society. We propose alternatives that foster dialogue and, in a certain sense, overcome the canons of colonialism and coloniality of the world of ethnomusicology as an academic practice. Through a multifocal perspective of acoustic situations of oppression – observed by people of oppressed groups – we discuss how social transformation may be achieved through actions on a micro level and, over time, can gain other dimensions and also help in the fight for social justice.

Etnomusicologia no Rio de Janeiro, Sua Práxis, Métodos e Engajamentos Políticos

Um Panorama dos Grupos de Pesquisa Ação Participativa do Laboratório de Etnomusicologia da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

Apresentamos esse painel enquanto membros do laboratório de etnomusicologia da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (LE-UFRJ), representado aqui, mais especificamente, por aqueles grupos com maior afinidade e aplicação de metodologias de pesquisas participativas, que sem pretensões de “neutralidade”, fazem de suas práxis investigativas modelos de intervenção, reflexão e ação política. Com inspiração no grupo Musicultura, o mais antigo grupo do LE-UFRJ com esse caráter, que intervém em uma perspectiva mais territorial, grupos como o Grupo de Pesquisa Dona Ivone Lara (GPEDIL) e o Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa Etnomusicológica NEGÔ atuam em eventos/movimentos ligados a produções musicais negras, feitas por e para o povo negro, considerando as perspectivas do debate interseccional em seu modo expandido no qual raça, gênero, sexualidade, classe, territorialidade, acessibilidade são vetores circundantes às suas pesquisas. A dimensão do debate do diálogo inter-religioso está representada pelo grupo Templo Cultural, que desenvolve seu trabalho na Baixada Fluminense, região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro. A performance e atuação específica de jovens artistas e ativistas negros do universo do Hip Hop, estão representados pela pesquisa de Juliana Catinin, Nyl MC e DJ Pirigo.

Buscando romper com cânones acadêmicos que violentam os corpos da maioria de nós, contestando o privilégio da escrita, mais objetivamente da escrita acadêmica, ousamos caminhar num sentido decolonial e contra-colonial, isto é, valorizando, visibilizando e potencializando experiências políticas e epistemológicas contra-hegemônicas produzidas pelos nossos ancestrais africanos, afro-brasileiros e ameríndios. Sem ilusão de pureza, apresentaremos vozes de uma diáspora múltipla, complexa e urbana. Vozes estas que desafiam seus cotidianos, tecendo reflexões de extrema profundidade, mesmo com toda pressão do racismo estrutural, com reflexos visíveis no espaço público, por meio da religião, corporeidade, política e música.

Esse painel é composto por maioria de jovens negras/os, moradoras/es de periferias e com diversas formações, acadêmicas e além-acadêmicas, entendendo e reforçando os saberes dos que vieram antes de nós, e dos que produzem fora dos moldes dessa realidade em si. Juntas/os, temos pensado a música e o que a cerca enquanto ferramenta de transformação da sociedade, propondo alternativas que visam dialogar e, em certo sentido, superar cânones do colonialismo e da colonialidade do mundo da etnomusicologia enquanto prática acadêmica. Assim, através de uma perspectiva multifocal de situações acústicas de opressão - observadas sob a ótica de oprimidos – discutiremos como pode ser possível haver possibilidades de transformação social através de ações a nível micro, que com o passar do tempo podem ganhar outras dimensões e também auxiliar no processo de luta por justiça social.

Reflections

This session was very productive for exchanging experiences at an international level, especially since some of the audience had not experienced this model of collective research before. The four collective presentations comprising musical compositions, experience reports, field recordings, and interviews, were based on very different contexts of the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The debate revolved around the challenges of participatory action research in music studies in Brazil, and how the results are produced and reflected upon from peripheral epistemologies. Our greatest challenges are related to the difficulty of organizing collective work in graduate programs; the organization of groups; the lack of funding; the unavailability of participants and their non-permanence in the research; the curricular restrictions in the academy; structural racism; and the discrimination and invalidation of the production of knowledge coming from this type of research.

From this perspective, we have seen that participatory work provokes a disruption in university guidelines. We try to democratize and expand research through community dialogue using other platforms such as the organization of public debates, parties, music labels, and pedagogical actions outside the academy. The ICTM Dialogues working group of UFRJ aims to continue the dialogue, as well as develop concrete actions in the short and medium term that will help our research to have a greater reach and generate social impact for minorities.

Further References

Questions to Consider

How do we expand the relationship between the university and peripheral communities, as well as funding for local researchers so that they can strengthen epistemologies against social injustice?

To what extent are dialogues between peripheral knowledges from different parts of the world necessary?

How do we break down the language barrier using new technologies of simultaneous translation in the form of speech or subtitles in meetings and study groups?